Auditory Processing Disorder

1. Ann Morrison, Ph.D. Auditory Processing Disorder

2. Auditory Discrimination • http://www.sounddogs.com/sound-effects/59/mp3/607974_SOUNDDOGS__su.mp3 • http://www.sounddogs.com/previews/25/mp3/229550_SOUNDDOGS__vo.mp3 • What are the people saying in the clips? • If this was the way your brain processed language, how would it impact your daily life?

3. Case Study: Clay • How did Clay’s APD present itself? • What did Clay’s family think? • What was Clay’s family’s response? • How was Clay’s APD diagnosed?

4. APD & Reading • The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) describes APD as occurring when difficulties in one or more of the following areas are observed: auditory discrimination; sound localization; auditory pattern recognition; decreased auditory performance in the presence of background noise, competing acoustic signals and/or degraded acoustic signals (ASHA, 1996)

5. Principles of APD (also called Central Auditory Processing Disorder) • Auditory processing disorders take place in the brain, not in the ear • Often impacts a student’s phonological awareness which is one of the primary skills used in sounding words out and spelling

6. Assessing APD • Assessing APD • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90ZC2rztnyQ • What are some of the key distinctions that need to be made in order to diagnose APD? • What other disabilities can it appear to be?

7. Summary of APD • Can present as other disabilities such as phonological processing, hearing impairment, and autism spectrum disorders • Requires assessment by an audiologist and specialist in speech and language disorders • Requires specialized speech and language therapy for remediation • Impacts multiple areas of a person’s life